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All carpetbaggers were sleazebags of the worst kind ... "
Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell

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sleazeball

NOUN
sleazebag (noun)
a disreputable, disgusting, or despicable person (also used as a general term of abuse).
"they were seen as a bunch of sleazeballs and liars" · "the sleazeball pimps"
synonyms:
despicable person/people · rabble · riffraff · refuse · garbage · trash · vermin · good-for-nothing(s) · undesirable(s) · the lowest of the low · the dregs of society · trog(s) · dirt · dirty dog(s) · rat(s) · louse(s) · toad(s) · worm(s) · scumbag(s) · crud(s) · cur(s) · no-good(s) · pond scum · scuzzball(s) · sleazeball(s) · dastard(s)

Examples of sleazebag in a Sentence
 She was involved with some sleazebag.
Recent Examples on the Web
Staggering drunkenly into the office one night with an entourage of partying sleazebags, Ford gropes Ashley for all to see and makes lewd comments.
— John Defore, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Mar. 2020
Alexei Navalny is just another small time political sleazebag trying to get somebody like Soros to give him money.
— Jane Tyska, The Mercury News, 21 June 2017
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'sleazebag.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

See More
First Known Use of sleazebag
1981, in the meaning defined above

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Carpetbagger
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


In the history of the United States, carpetbagger was a derogatory term applied by Southerners to opportunistic Northerners who came to the Southern states after the American Civil War, who were perceived to be exploiting the local populace for their own financial, political, and/or social gain. The term broadly included both individuals who sought to promote Republican politics (including the right of African Americans to vote and hold office), and individuals who saw business and political opportunities because of the chaotic state of the local economies following the war. In practice, the term carpetbagger was often applied to any Northerner who was present in the South during the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877). The term is closely associated with "scalawag", a similarly pejorative word used to describe native White Southerners who supported the Republican Party-led Reconstruction.

White Southerners commonly denounced "carpetbaggers" collectively during the post-war years, fearing they would loot and plunder the defeated South and be politically allied with the Radical Republicans.[1] Sixty men from the North, including educated free blacks and slaves who had escaped to the North and returned South after the war, were elected from the South as Republicans to Congress. The majority of Republican governors in the South during Reconstruction were from the North. [2]

Historian Eric Foner argues:

... most carpetbaggers probably combine the desire for personal gain with a commitment to taking part in an effort "to substitute the civilization of freedom for that of slavery". ... Carpetbaggers generally supported measures aimed at democratizing and modernizing the South – civil rights legislation, aid to economic development, the establishment of public school systems.[3]

Since the end of the Reconstruction era, the term has been used to denote people who move into a new area for purely economic or political reasons, despite not having ties to that place.


Etymology and definition

The term carpetbagger, used exclusively as a pejorative term, originated from the carpet bags (a form of cheap luggage made from carpet fabric) which many of these newcomers carried. The term came to be associated with opportunism and exploitation by outsiders. The term is now used in the United States to refer to a parachute candidate, that is, an outsider who runs for public office in an area without having lived there for more than a short time, or without having other significant community ties.[citation needed]

In the United Kingdom at the end of the 20th century, carpetbagger developed another meaning: in British English it refers to people who join a mutual organization, such as a building society, in order to force it to demutualize, that is, to convert into a joint stock company. Such individuals are seeking personal financial gain through such actions.[4]